This Begonia is endemic of Puerto Rico. It can be seen in roadsides and places where the forest canopy borders and open sunny area.
Showing posts with label native. Show all posts
Showing posts with label native. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Begonia decandra Pav. ex A.DC. in El Yunque National Forest
This Begonia is endemic of Puerto Rico. It can be seen in roadsides and places where the forest canopy borders and open sunny area.
Stelis perpusilliflora Cogn. in I.Urban 1909 in El Yunque National Forest
This orchid was photographed in El Yunque National forest. The flowers are tiny and remain cupped when they open. The inflorescence is horizontal with the flowers pointing downwards or to the side. I had to bend the inflorescence upwards to get a view of the inside of the flowers.
Wednesday, October 9, 2024
Bulbophyllum stellatum Ames 1912
Bulbophyllum stellatum Ames 1912, is a species that is from the Philippines. Its a small plant with small flowers on an umbellate inflorescence.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Sacoila lanceolata (Aubl.) Garay 1982, for many year this plant eluded me, I found it at a roadside. I expected the flowers to be red, but the flowers I found were orange
Sacoila lanceolata is a terrestrial orchid that is widespread in the Antilles and tropical America. In the photos I have seen of the species, the flowers are bright red. But the population I saw in the west of the island of Puerto Rico, is pale orange. Apparently there are also yellow ones, but I have not seen them only heard about them.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Cranichis muscosa Sw. 1788, one of the first orchids blooming in the Rio Abajo forest, Puerto Rico, after hurricane Maria.
I found this orchid in a roadside. The leaves had its sides sunburned and the plant was small for the species. It escaped being buried in a mass of fallen bamboo stems. It is growing on the side of a road cut, a drier place than where I am used to find them. When I saw it I was happy that some plants survived. The loss of the canopy due to the hurricane winds was a disaster for the plants used to grow on the shade of the forest understory, many burned to a crisp and died. The reduced humidity in the weeks after the hurricane also was an issue. Many plants were smothered by the massive leaf fall and the numerous large branches that were thrown violently to the forest floor.
Thursday, March 16, 2017
I found some tiny orchid seedlings, maybe of Leochilus puertoricensis, "in situ" in a single thin branch
Today I took some photos of the flowers of Leochilus puertoricensis and uploaded them to the Internet. I was asked to take photos of the whole plant. I went to see the plants and moved around the tree to try to get a better angle for the photos. Then I noticed tiny green slivers on one of the branches. They turned out to be orchid seedling. I have never seen so many orchid seedling or such tiny ones. Most were only green blades. A single one had a short root. My suspicion is that they are seedling of Leochilus, since they are in the same tree with plants of this species. However I have never seen so many Leochilus plants clumped together, usually they occur as solitary plants. I suspect the reason there are so many of them there is that it is the dry season and slugs and snails, which love to snack on these things are not very active due to the low humidity. I will watch these tiny plants to see how many of them survive and how long they take to reach maturity and bloom.
Sunday, December 25, 2016
Epidendrum lacerum Lindley 1838, it is always a treat to see species from Cuba.
In Puerto Rico, the orchid market is dominated by hybrids due to their availability and relative ease of cultivation in comparison with orchid species. However there is a small number of growers that cultivate mostly species. Finding Cuban orchid species in cultivation is not common so it is always a pleasure to find one in bloom. This is a species from Cuba, it is related to Epidendrum secundum but the flowers are different and they are also oriented differently in the inflorescence.
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Ponthieva ventricosa (Griseb.) Fawc. & Rendle, a few close ups of the flowers of this Caribbean endemic
The group of plants of this species that grows near my house suffered greatly during the drought of 2015. This year has been much wetter which has allowed he clump to recuperate somewhat. However it is still smaller than when I first found it due to the stress it underwent during the long dry spells of last year. It only has a fraction of the inflorescences that it used to produce.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Monday, November 14, 2016
Encyclia cordigera [HBK] Dressler 1964, the typical form of the species, sometimes sold as a "semi alba"
In Puerto Rico, this species poses no challenge to cultivate. It can tolerate drought and grows best if it gets a few hours of full sun every day. Note that is its growing in a basket that hardly has any potting material. The bane of this species is root loss due to overwatering. I just doesn't tolerate media that remains wet. I grow my plants high in the orchid house, just under the shade clothe where they get the brightest light. Good fertilization while in active growth is the key to large pseudobulbs.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Liparis saundersiana Rchb. f., the lip of the flowers is flat and translucid
For more information on this species native of Puerto Rico you can look here: http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2015/01/liparis-saundersiana-rchb-f-terrestrial.html
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Psychilis krugii Sauleda, Psy kraenzlinii (Bello) Sauleda y Psy. x raganii
| Psy. x raganii, hybrid of Psy. kraenzlinii and Psy. krugii |
| Psy. kraenzlinii |
| Psy. krugii |
Psychilis x raganii Sauleda, I photographed several plants to see the flower variation
These orchids were growing in the eroded face of a hill, under and between spiny bushes and stunted trees. The substrate was mud and loose stone, a mixture that made walking around challenging and dangerous. The angle of the side of the hill varied between 45 and 60 degrees. In some spots the bushes were a solid impassable mass. In the steepest places there were no plants at all but only bare rock. Most of the area was a crazy quilt of continuos vegetation, eroded spots, bare rock places and stunted grass patches.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Psychilis x raganii Sauleda, a follow up visit to the population I visited in 2013
I visited this population of orchids for the first time back in 2013. Today I checked on it and was pleased to find that the plants are still doing well. The plants were blooming and I saw seed pods and seedlings. There seems to be fewer plants in places where they can be easily seen from the trail but that might just be because aren't as many plant flowering now as when I first visited. The place seems little changed. However, before I got to the place where the orchids are I had to wade through a veritable sea of neck tall grass, Panicum maximum. There may be that coming next dry season the area will be very fire prone due to large amount of dry grass present. However the orchids are growing higher in the mountain in a place so dry that the grass is stunted, small and inhibited from growing by the abundant spiny bushes. You can read about my first visit to the place where these orchids grow here. http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2013/10/psychilis-x-raganii-serendipitious.html
Sunday, October 2, 2016
Basiphyllea corallicola (Small) Ames, one of our native orchids of Puerto Rico
I found this orchid in the Maricao forest. I have walked many times by the place where this clump of plants is growing and never noticed them. They are practically invisible without their inflorescences. This plant is rarely photographed. I always thought that Basiphyllea flowers remained almost completely closed, but it seems there is a population in Maricao where flowers open wide. Unfortunately when I found this clump, a few buds remained and only a single, damaged flower was opened wide.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Basiphyllea corallicola (Small) Ames, maybe? This one has me stumped.
It is very rare that I can't identify a local species of orchid let alone decide to what genera a plant belongs. My best guess is that this is a freshly opened flower of Basiphyllea corallicola. However since all I have are line drawings and descriptions and my own limited knowledge of this genera, the ID has to be tentative. The plant is growing in the Maricao forest. It was the only open flower of this plant that was not severely damaged or already collapsed. I know the flowers of Basiphyllea barely open, so this may be something else. Then however I have no idea what it is.
Cranichis tenuis Reichenbach f. 1865, found some dew covered flowers today.
Today I visited a population of Cranichis tenuis in the Maricao forest. I was surprised to find only seven plants, when last year were dozens. The place where they grow is not often visited by people so human influence is not suspect. I visited the place early in the morning and found these flowers covered with dew. I like how the flowers look.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Tetramicra elegans [Hamilton] Cogn. 1910, here I show the flowers of a plant from cultivation, origin unknown and two flowers from plants "in situ" in the Sierra Bermeja, Puerto Rico
| Cultivated plant |
| Cultivated plant |
| Cultivated plant |
| "in situ" |
| "in situ" |
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Leochilus puertoricensis M.W. Chase 1986, today I found three plants in the trees around my garden
This small orchid can be found sporadically growing on the Camasey trees that surround my garden. They are short lived for an orchid. In last year dry season, all the plants I knew died, some young plants were unable to survive the unusual severity of the dry season, other had already bloomed and fruited and were larger but this didn't seem to help them. Today I found three plants, I will monitor them to see how they fare in the coming year.
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Cranichis tenuis Reichenbach f. 1865, the population I found in the landslide last year has become larger
Last year I found a few plants of this species growing in nooks and crannies among the rocks of a decades old landslide. In this year blooming season I found many more plants than last year. It seems the conditions at the landslide site has become favorable for the growth of this orchid.
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